Saturday, August 2, 2008

NASCAR Pins Hopes On Pocono

Nothing will do more to quiet the roar from the fans and the media about the tire problems at Indy than a great Pocono race on Sunday.

ESPN has all the heavy-hitters ready to go and will open the day with a one hour edition of NASCAR Now at 10AM ET on ESPN2. Either Nicole Manske or Ryan Burr will anchor, with Allen Bestwick present on the Infield Studio Set in Pocono.

Last week, this program was very effective in setting the table for racing and outstanding in content. As ESPN VP of Motorsports Rich Feinberg related earlier this season, the network will be using all of the on-air announcers assigned to these events to support programs like NASCAR Now this year. The change has been very good.

NASCAR RaceDay is up next on SPEED at 11AM. John Roberts hosts the two hour show, with Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace alongside. This week the show will have a whole lot of guests for a whole lot of reasons.

NASCAR President Mike Helton will be along, as will Bob Owen from Sunoco and Tom Foley from the American Red Cross. This race is focused on a charity blood drive and Foley will speak to that issue. In terms of NASCAR folks, Kasey Kahne, AJ Allmendinger and Jimmy Elledge will be on the show.

Wendy Venturini will be having fun this weekend as she will have her regular Real Deal segment and will also be talking with the one and only Kiefer Sutherland. He will be on-hand as the Grand Marshal of the race and also to plug his latest movie. It should be interesting to see how much he knows about NASCAR.

Next-up is NASCAR Countdown on ESPN at 1PM. Allen Bestwick will lead this show alongside Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace. This is their first opportunity to address the Indy issues of last week and also to update the happenings in Montreal. Wallace was present for that race and worked in the booth with Randy LaJoie.

Race coverage of the Sprint Cup Series from Pocono will start at 2PM on ESPN. Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will handle the action from the broadcast booth. Down on pit road will be Dave Burns, Shannon Spake, Mike Massaro and Jamie Little. Massaro is just back from Montreal, where he hosted the pre-race show and also reported from the very wet pits. As usual, Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Center.

ESPN is making sure that Bestwick and company will remain a part of these telecasts, so viewers should look for him to host the race recaps and take control of the live program coming out of commercial breaks to facilitate some discussions. The on-air dynamic between Punch and Bestwick is always interesting to watch, especially when Punch returns to calling the race. After the event, ESPNEWS will be live with the post-race interviews from the Media Center as they have all season long.

Victory Lane on SPEED airs at 8PM. Last week, Spencer and Kenny Wallace were quite emphatic in their views about the Indy events. It led to this column and the corresponding comments from NASCAR fans. It should be very interesting to see how the show plays-out this week.

The second edition of the new one hour Sunday night version of NASCAR Now is on at 10PM. This program is a very good wrap-up show for all the activity of the weekend and ESPN uses the resources at the track to add to the content of this studio-based program. Nicole Manske or Ryan Burr will host.

Speaking of of NASCAR Now, viewers should keep an eye out for the Monday roundtable show at 5PM. This week, another theme show will put all four of the ESPN pit reporters on the set along with Bestwick as the host. It should finally be a good snapshot of the real personalities of these four and a test of how they interact away from pit road.

Monday on This Week in NASCAR at 8PM on SPEED the "odd couple" is back. Chad Knaus joins Michael Waltrip and host Steve Byrnes to recap Pocono. Knaus has really found his stride on this show with the encouragement of Byrnes and when Knaus and Waltrip get going on a topic the results can be unintentionally hilarious.

This post will host your comments about the early NASCAR TV programs and there will be a new post up for the Sprint Cup race at Noon ET. To add your opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

45 comments:

red
said...

morning, all! we were given free tickets to pocono (probably the only way i'd go see a race at long pond!) so we're headed that way shortly. sorry to have to miss all the "fun" with you today but i'll catch up when we get home late tonight. have a great race, all! --red

With your inside information do you know how Hotpass chooses which drivers they cover? Is it sponser driver? Also, I am sure there aren't any ratings for Hotpass, but do you know any numbers on it? How many people subscribe, watch etc?

Personally I think Hotpass is great, brings out a new dimension in race coverage if you are interested in certain drivers versus the whole race picture.

Just finished watching the interview by N. Manske with R.Newman, on NN. Again, she knew just how far to go and or push to get the answer needed to make it a good interview. Manske and Bestwick really have changed NASCAR Now to a show that is a pleasure to watch.

I actually think HotPass increases the whole race coverage. If one of the HotPass guys is within a couple of spots of the driver you want to follow you'll get more info than the regular broadcast. Most of the time that's how I use it.

First, I am sorry about Jimmy's mom. My condolences to him, and his family.

Second, enjoyed the interview with AJ but what is the deal with him being the hot interview and being asked about getting out while Mike S drove ...I have heard this two or three times this week. Yes, good PR person...I like seeing one of the non top 12 guys interviewed.

Third, PROOF That NASCAR Race Day needs to go BACK to one hour..the repeat of NASCAR Confidential?

It's a little quieter but I would expect that with the death Jimmy's mom. JR and Kenny both knew her and she was a big part of Jimmy's life, not to mention his family lives near by and they were all possibly planning a visit (remember the junk yard races). It sort of puts a damper on things.

Re: Nicole Manske...I never see her much recently, I NEVER watch Sun NN...just can't take "trying" to watch more pre-race. I must say I have truly enjoyed her this year on ESPN and personally, I prefer her daily on NN over Ryan...less hyper, more laid back and converasational (real) in her style.

Sorry to miss her if she is always on the Sun AM stuff.

Red, hope you enjoyed the race!

Kiefer is on to PROMOTE a FOX SHOW 24. and their actor and his agenda. Rolls eyes.

On Raceday they talked a bit about the problems of the race last week at Indy. They talked about how the Teams, Goodyear, Nascar, Crew Chiefs, Drivers all worked together to work with the problem. One thing I have not seen on any of these shows is interviews with the fans that were there. Would have been interesting to hear what the fans had to say.Were the fans happy with the race and liked how the race was run? Did the fans think they got their monies worth? Will they be back next year?I wonder why the fans opinion was not part of a telecast.

Hey guys - you ever wonder if the track makes the networks have the grand marshal on their race coverage? The track controls the network access so maybe they ask the network to get the grand marshal on and the network gets something in return.

I think the AJ Allmendinger "placement" is coming about imply because the networks covering NASCAR are realizing he is a very, very personable and funny guy on TV. He's always been that way. And unlike many of his young peers, he says exactly what is on his mind.

He has written a couple of blogs for yahoo.com, including one this week. He comes across as a regular guy, like when he describes his "man-crush" on Brett Favre and how he's worried about keeping his job with Red Bull next year.

Perhaps the producers of the pre-race shows are reading those recent blogs and responding to that,since AJ has a good chance of getting back into the top 35 soon and had a top 10 at the Brickyard.

I'm just glad to see some different Cup drivers interviewed on my TV screen for once. No complaints here.